what do you say about the difference between Ted Cruz and someone like Wendy Davis? Is the filibuster only admirable if you agree with the goal? (I say this as someone who loathes the Tea Party.)

A: Alexandra Petri

Well the difference is that Wendy Davis's filibuster was actually a filibuster -- under the rules of order, if she spoke long enough, the session would end without a vote. Filibustering wasn't a grandstanding exercise -- it was the only option for the minority to stop the legislation. With Cruz, it was just a long speech -- when he stopped talking, the vote proceeded, as it would have had he not talked at all. The filibuster is only admirable if it's actually a filibuster.

Alexandra, do you think the National Zoo pandas pressured Boehner to do the shutdown just for turning off the panda cams? I can see the need for SOME occasional privacy and peace / quiet. Or perhaps, as your awesome colleague Karen Tumulty tweeted, it might give the red panda another chance to escape.

A: Alexandra Petri

My theory on the pandas is that, deprived of human attention even for a few minutes, they will forget how to breathe, keel over, and die.

...parts of the DEA would be nonessential and Hank would wind up at home spending all day arguing with Marie about rocks vs. minerals. Of course, this benefits Walt and Jesse as it buys them time, or at least gives Walt the chance to get his copy of Leaves of Grass out of the bathroom. Then again, at least Skyler could visit the Four Corners since it's run by the Navaho Nation. If Marie would allow Hank to brew beer all day, he'd wind up Breaking Beer a lot and would probably have to sell it through Gus' distributors.

Are we really all that bad? Couldn't you do some sort of Old Testament deal where if you find ten decent internet commenters you won't destroy them all?

A: Alexandra Petri

Nose game for who gets turned into a pillar of salt!

(You great folks and the actual community of commenters isn't the problem! You are the residents and homeowners whose turf gets periodically destroyed by giant floods of sewage. I was complaining about the giant floods of sewage!)

Thanks for tweeting your earlier concerns about Area 51 (and moon landing). You make a valid point: furloughed workers = unhappy workers = likely to talk. I'd also be worried about who will take care of the aliens during the shutdown.

Just so you folks don't think DC is the only one suffering from the shutdown. I work at a large state university with a number of federal labs that are now closed. Especially disturbing is the vet med one where they have to freeze or destroy lab specimens since they don't know when they will be able to work on them. Though it's good for those pigs who were going to be "sacrificed" today and now have been granted a reprieve!

But the constant scrutiny has made them forget how to reproduce. Or maybe China only sends us the ones who don't want to reproduce.

A: Alexandra Petri

If they purposely sent us the only two pandas lacking any real impulse to continue the species, and back at home surrounded by bamboo the pandas are proverbial for their lustiness and competence, why I'll - -well -- I don't know what I'll do, actually. Let me think on it.

I have seen a bunch of posts on Facebook basically saying "if the government is shut down and they aren't paying salaries, when do they start sending rebates to taxpayers for the money they are saving?" I've thought about trying to explain how tax revenues and budgets work (and that, oh, by the way, currently tax revenues are less than expenditures) and letting these people know they shouldn't hold their breath waiting for the rebate check. Instead, I've just clicked "like". Is that just as effective?

A: Alexandra Petri

I generally find it so. "Like" is another way of saying "this is wrong but I don't have time to explain," "your life milestone makes a little something in me die" or "Please continue self-destructing in this public forum; I don't have a tv."

are we talking DC or Marvel superheroes? And which is Hawkeye, DC or Marvel?

A: Alexandra Petri

Hawkeye's Marvel.

I was sort of flopping between the two, although we could just ditch all the DC superheroes on the ground that everyone in DC is out of work these days (and also they've been pretty lousy to their ladies lately.)

Especially since he would never really get past TSA to get on the plane. Comics are our greatest escape from life's depressing realities. Wait...if the gov't is shut down, who's doing patdowns at the airports?

A: Alexandra Petri

No, no, as a rule of thumb, all the things that the government does that you actively dislike continue unabated during sequesters and shutdowns. It's the visa processing and NASA that get slowed.

Even though you can't watch Mei Lan and the baby now, you can go to the Atlanta Zoo website and see Lun Lun and her twin cubs on their cam. Or the San Diego Zoo where they don't have a baby, but do have a toddler cub who wrestles with his mom Bai Yun.

A: Alexandra Petri

"You see, the states and the private sector have already stepped up to fill the void!" --someone somewhere, probably

It would have been better (well, less ironic) if he hadn't read a story where the moral is "don't knock it until you try it" when talking about the Affordable Care Act. Maybe Cruz should try it before saying it is bad.

A: Alexandra Petri

What I also don't understand is: if you're absolutely convinced that it will be terrible and the American people will hate it, why not... let yourself be proven right? Don't push it. Just sit there with your arms folded waiting for everyone to crawl back to you at the midterms. As long as you're sure...

I just read (at WaPo, of course) that air traffic controllers will be forced to work without pay. Oh, THAT makes me feel comfy and peachy about flying, you betcha. Think Breaking Bad. (oh, sorry, Alexandra, forgot you hadn't seen it - the reference (for real) is when Jesse's girlfriend Jane died, her father was an air traffic controller whose mourning led to distraction that caused a mid-air collision over Albuquerque. Imagine ATC's distracted over lack of pay and bills piling up.)

Think the shutdown will result in many more people visiting Yellowstone to see the elk bugle next year, the piece on NBC news last night sure made visiting the park seem like a cool fall ritual, not as good as a PSL but still.

I don't think withholding sex is the right solution. That plays right into the hands of the rightwingers. I think the opposite response is more appropriate, to treat this as a blizzard or power outage. Government Slutdown, that'll show those prudes what we do when we have no money but lots of free time!

A: Alexandra Petri

This is definitely a bad comment to use as a transition to, "Well, on that note, I should skedaddle," but I really do have to skedaddle. Got to see an elk about a panda.

Keep reading the Compost and feel free to follow me on Twitter, where I go silent for days at a time and then barrage you with things that occcurred to me on the train.

Alexandra Petri writes the ComPost, a lighter take on the news and issues of the day, and she contributes to the Post editorial page. Her work has appeared in venues such as The Huffington Post, The Week, Newsweek.com, Businessweek.com, Collegehumor, and The Harvard Crimson. She has appeared on Jeopardy!, Showbiz Tonight and Canadian radio, and she has performed at Boston's Comedy Studio and Comedy Connection. She would love to be on your TV show, radio show, Daily Show, HBO special, or to be an honored guest (or regular guest) at your Bar Mitzvah. She is the author of two books (unpublished, but contact her!), two screenplays, three plays, one musical, and one memoir (Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast.)